SIT Political Science Programs: Across the Globe

SIT Ecuador made me realize that a good study abroad experience is like learning to read. Traveling superficially is exciting with its incoherent sounds and symbols, but what I loved about SIT's program is that it allowed me to move past that phase and into one where every mark of the landscape had meaning. I felt competent to travel around by myself, to speak Spanish, and to interpret everything I saw on a daily basis in terms of Ecuador's cultural and political climate. I can't go back to Ecuador as a tourist any more than I can unlearn how to read, and I really appreciate this depth of learning that the SIT model provides.

Having been in Tunisia when the first terrorist attack happened, in March 2015, I can truthfully say that security IS a risk factor, but not nearly as important as it seems from outside the country. For the kindness of the people, the richness of the landscape, and the variety in culture, I found it worth the need to be aware of my security in public places. It's a decision for everyone to make alone, but I would go back to Tunisia (unless a third terrorist attack happened, in which I'd be seriously concerned).
I found it worth the security risks (which weren't serious enough to merit US Embassy officials being forced to return to America for safety concerns), in exchange for experiencing a country undergoing a democratic transition, with emerging religious extremists, the revolution's impact on youth populations (which are critical to political stability!), and for living in the 'modern' country of the Arab world.

So overall, totally worth what the naysayers use as evidence to not go! So go!!